TLALOC | Titan’s Lakes and Lower Clouds: investigation of the enigmatic methane cycle with a new advanced model.

Summary
Saturn’s moon Titan is the only world in the Solar System besides Earth where rains reach the surface. Due to the cryogenic temperatures, these rains are not made of water but of methane. It accumulates in polar lakes and mud terrains, which seasonally evaporate, producing a methane hydrological cycle. Cloud localisations and precipitation events unveiled by recent missions are still not well understood. Climate models would help this endeavor, but they are currently missing crucial physical descriptions (especially air-surface interactions).
The T’LALOC project aims to solve Titan’s complex methane cycle by developing a model to address the currently open key questions: (Q1) the influence of lakes and wetlands; (Q2) seasonal effects; and, (Q3) methane storm impacts. We will obtain an unprecedented next-generation Titan global climate model by incorporating and improving building blocks from three existing regional models developed at SwRI, LMD and UPV/EHU. Each of these models individually specializes in one of the issues above (Q1-2-3). Upon completion we will obtain the first advanced model able to reproduce the hydrological cycle and interpret observations of clouds and rain events. The project will start at a strategic timing: close to the end of the Cassini-Huygens mission (2004-2017), at the first light of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, 2022), during the preparation of the Dragonfly mission (launch in 2026) and at the definition of a future EU mission. The large set of data by Cassini and the new data by JWST have to be exploited in urgency to improve our current atmospheric models and to be able to simulate weather conditions at the surface, which impacts the Dragonfly rotorcraft operations and science return. This project brings together world leaders in Titan climate modelling from the US and EU, sows the seeds for collaboration on future missions to Titan, and positions the fellow and the host EU teams as references in Titan climate modelling.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101022760
Start date: 01-09-2021
End date: 31-08-2024
Total budget - Public funding: 245 732,16 Euro - 245 732,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

Saturn’s moon Titan is the only world in the Solar System besides Earth where rains reach the surface. Due to the cryogenic temperatures, these rains are not made of water but of methane. It accumulates in polar lakes and mud terrains, which seasonally evaporate, producing a methane hydrological cycle. Cloud localisations and precipitation events unveiled by recent missions are still not well understood. Climate models would help this endeavor, but they are currently missing crucial physical descriptions (especially air-surface interactions).
The T’LALOC project aims to solve Titan’s complex methane cycle by developing a model to address the currently open key questions: (Q1) the influence of lakes and wetlands; (Q2) seasonal effects; and, (Q3) methane storm impacts. We will obtain an unprecedented next-generation Titan global climate model by incorporating and improving building blocks from three existing regional models developed at SwRI, LMD and UPV/EHU. Each of these models individually specializes in one of the issues above (Q1-2-3). Upon completion we will obtain the first advanced model able to reproduce the hydrological cycle and interpret observations of clouds and rain events. The project will start at a strategic timing: close to the end of the Cassini-Huygens mission (2004-2017), at the first light of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST, 2022), during the preparation of the Dragonfly mission (launch in 2026) and at the definition of a future EU mission. The large set of data by Cassini and the new data by JWST have to be exploited in urgency to improve our current atmospheric models and to be able to simulate weather conditions at the surface, which impacts the Dragonfly rotorcraft operations and science return. This project brings together world leaders in Titan climate modelling from the US and EU, sows the seeds for collaboration on future missions to Titan, and positions the fellow and the host EU teams as references in Titan climate modelling.

Status

TERMINATED

Call topic

MSCA-IF-2020

Update Date

28-04-2024
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Horizon 2020
H2020-EU.1. EXCELLENT SCIENCE
H2020-EU.1.3. EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
H2020-EU.1.3.2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
MSCA-IF-2020 Individual Fellowships